My bet's on Canada too. They have the most deep team in the Olympics.
USA will finish out of the medal rounds, because I think they've made some very questionable picks.
Finland will disappoint because they don't have a superb goaltender to help out their average defense (Lehtonen and Kiprusoff both pulled out).
Slovakia will be tough but will finish fourth because they lack the depth, not the talent.
Russia has the most firepower and will medal, but probably a bronze.
Sweden will finish with the silver losing to Canada in the finals. They have a very tough team and probably the best defensive corps in the tournament, but the Canadian forwards will shut their offense down. Apparently, their starter Henrik Lundqvist has gone back to using oversized pads.

The Czech players are in excellent form and they know how to push themselves playing for their country. Imo the Canadians are tending to play arrogantly sometimes because they think they are just the best team, what they are of course.

I can't see anyone other than the Czechs and Russians challenging the Canadians. The swedes are a bit depleted upfront, the fins and slovakians are weak in net, and the USA is just simply not that good.
I'd have to go with Canada winning gold over the czechs in the final.

Apparently, their starter Henrik Lundqvist has gone back to using oversized pads.

Not true... at least not based on info from Swedish TV yesterday. Henrik will be using his NHL pads.

My vote is on Sweden. Previous years they have been one of the top favorites, at least by Swedish media and Swedish fans. This time, after the Nagano and Salt Lake disappointments and being without NÃ¤slund, Johnsson, Kronwall and possibly Forsberg and Norstrom, they are considered underdogs and I think that will only do them good. Noone think they will win, and that's why they will win. You read it here first!

Sweden just took two gold medals in 20 minutes (skiing, and beat Canada in the finish for one of them ) and think they'll take their third gold in hockey (maybe they can beat Canada in women's curling for a fourth )

Can't think of anything better than beating Finland for the gold medal.

It sure feels good to win the gold, but I don't really like the way the Olympics are played, with everything decided in one game from the quarterfinals to the finals. I think they should only have eight teams playing, with a best-of-three in quarterfinals, semifinals and possibly also in the final. Or perhaps a preliminary round with only two teams advancing from each group. With today's format there are five meaningless games in the preliminary round. Sweden played well enough to advance (would be a real feat to fail to advance...), then had an easy quarterfinal agains Switzerland, a rather good show against a Czech team which had a very bad day, and finally a solid effort in the finals against a good team. Basically Sweden just beat Finland and the Czechs and all of a sudden they are gold medalists. Well, I'll take it, but it does not feel like we are the best team in the world. Just like it didn't feel like we were the worst team in the world after Nagano and Salt Lake.

The crowning achievement of the three stand out players of Sweden's so called golden generation.
Gives me goose bumps every time.

Can't wait till 2014 when we get another shot at it!

that's an issue that's sort of slipped quietly behind the scenes, will the NHL allow their players to participate in 2014? the last I heard was that the owners had not given their blessing automatically, they had to convene a special board to make that decision. I think they were attaching that issue to the CBA as a bargaining chip. Withholding the rights of players to participate would take the Canadian team right out of it, all our guys are NHLers, how could a gold medal mean anything if it wasn't won in a tournament of the best players in the world?

ukcanuck wrote:that's an issue that's sort of slipped quietly behind the scenes, will the NHL allow their players to participate in 2014? the last I heard was that the owners had not given their blessing automatically, they had to convene a special board to make that decision. I think they were attaching that issue to the CBA as a bargaining chip. Withholding the rights of players to participate would take the Canadian team right out of it, all our guys are NHLers, how could a gold medal mean anything if it wasn't won in a tournament of the best players in the world?

It'd be really stupid if they stop the players.

What better way to market the game than a prime time tournament with all the best players and the added goodwill of it being an Olympic event? That it is the Olympics also means that it will be televised globally, ie not just in traditional hockey markets, so it is sort of an outreach programme for the less fortunate souls elsewhere that hardly ever get to watch hockey.